I know I’ll eat my words as soon as I say this, but it seems like I must have seen it all by now. We just entered Oklahoma for about a 30 minute drive parallel to Texas in search of a mug. I haven’t seen this much flat land since Iowa, and I think this even surpasses that. Driving out here one has to wonder if these people even know about the rest of the country. I think I can see California from here, that’s how flat it is. No hills, …wow, two Wal-Mart trucks just whizzed by. they must be lost. As I was saying, no hills, no call boxes, no coffee mugs—just lots and lots of land and one very long, very straight road leading to the Pacific.
This is a slight change of pace from our recent adventures in New Orleans, LA. We arrived in N’Orleans around 1:30am Saturday morning. You might think that’s late, but by N’Orleans time the party was just getting started. I’ve never heard so much live music in one place in my life. Bourbon Street is literally a wall of bars and just about every one has a live band. We finally got to bed and the next morning it was café au lait and beignets at the Café Du Monde. A paddleboat tour down the Mississippi, a bus tour of the city, and an absolutely exquisite dinner at the Café Royal occupied the rest of the day. We’ve heard so much about them that Chris ordered a Mint Julep after dinner. A virgin Julep must be water with mint leaves in it because this thing was almost pure Bourbon. We amused ourselves by watching the mother of the family that sat down next to us as she tried her Julep. I don’t know what would have been more priceless, a picture of her expression or a picture of ours as we watched.
After dinner we split up. Chris was feeling rather spontaneous, rather wacky, kinda’ zany and he wanted to get an earring. We searched high and low for a piercing shop but the one we did finally find was closing. I never made it with him back to the hotel. As we were walking down the street, an impromptu Bastille Day Parade was marching by us: a bunch of drunk people harmonizing surprisingly well, considering. If cars turned down the street, they just had to wait. Naturally I started bouncing down the street with them, this was what I was in New Orleans to see. I followed the parade for a while and then broke off to see a hole in the wall jazz hall between Royal and Bourbon—maybe you’ve heard of it—Preservation Hall.
Five bucks paid for my next two hours of entertainment. The seven piece jazz band played four sets of straight up Dixieland jazz. The classic New Orleans moment came during one of the sets when the Bastille Day celebration came marching down the street. As the Preservation Hall Jazz Band played, saxophones and drums and various other instruments went strolling by the window behind them, to the consternation of the Preservation Hall boys. Y’all may think this kinda’ thing is boring compared to Chris’ quest for bare-breasted women begging for beads but hell, you can get that on the Internet.
Speaking of the Internet, of course y’all have heard of DotComGuy, that crazy Texan down in Dallas that has confined himself to his house for a year to demonstrate the capabilities of the Internet.
After our adventures in New Orleans it was off to Dallas. A good friend of my uncle, John Ezell, put us up for the night in his impressive Dallas home (complete with Jacuzzi). After being treated to lunch with John, we treated ourselves with a visit to the DotCompound, home of DotComGuy. You’ve more than likely heard of DotComGuy, an “Internet Evangelist” demonstrating the power of the Internet by using it as his sole means of survival for one year. Like us, he’s documenting the endeavor on his web site--you guessed it, dotcomguy.com. We had a great time visiting with DotComGuy and who knows, maybe we’ll be invited back for what will undoubtedly be a huge party at the end of the year. May the Net be with you!
The only other noteworthy event was our trip to Round Rock, TX, a Chris Pasley excursion. We met his friend Lauren from the Internet and treated her and her two friends to a game of bowling. Damn good of us if you ask me. The next morning we stopped by Dell’s headquarters to try and get Chris an internship. It probably would have been a good idea to have some kind of appointment or inside contact but hey, it was only 6 hours out of our way and the hotel was fairly cheap.
So that does it for now, consider yourself caught up. Next stop, Colorado Springs, CO. In the meantime, drive safely,
-Sean